Humanities, Computing, and Design Bachelor of Science Degree

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Humanities, Computing, and Design
Bachelor of Science Degree

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Lisa Monette, Associate Director of Recruitment and Outreach

RIT’s humanities, computing, and design major pairs the liberal arts with the latest tech to prepare you for careers in dynamic areas that require advanced computing and digital skills.

Co-op Required

New Economy Major

Overview for Humanities, Computing, and Design BS

  • Humanities, computing, and design is an RIT New Economy Major. This collection of degree programs is forward-thinking and future-forming, and helps prepare you to excel in the multidisciplinary nature of our modern, dynamic economy.
  • Customize your course work with electives from a range of areas including information sciences, new media design, data analytics, game design and development, English and creative writing, museum studies, history, communication, and more.
  • Develop a professional portfolio that showcases to employers your work on dynamic, hands-on projects.
  • Enhance your career flexibility with skills used across a variety of industries including gaming, education, graphic design, libraries and cultural institutions, human resources, business and communication, and data management.
  • Learn to effectively collaborate with all stakeholders on a project, navigate user needs, and anticipate technical possibilities.
9 Majors That Launch Your Career in Digital Media
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Humanities, computing, and design is a dynamic field of study that integrates the traditional liberal arts–anthropology, art, communication, English, history, literature, linguistics, museum studies, philosophy, and political science–with advanced digital skills found in computing, information sciences, game design and development, digital technology, human-computer interaction, database management, data analytics, geographic information technologies, and interactivity in new media. The purpose of this degree is to create a bridge between the traditional liberal arts and the digital world, where critical thinking, cultural awareness, and communication must now integrate with digital technologies. The major prepares you for dynamic new career opportunities that are emerging as professionals find new and exciting ways to combine digital technologies and computing into everything from business and communications to education, history, museum studies, politics, public policy, and more.

What is Humanities, Computing, and Design?

Formerly known as digital humanities and social sciences, RIT's humanities, computing and design major pairs digital tools with computing to further anthropology, communication, culture, history, journalism, literature, and the arts. It creates new possibilities for these traditional liberal arts fields by integrating digital technologies, computing skills, visual communication, data analytics, and more.

Career opportunities encompass endless ways to pair digital technologies with the liberal arts. For example:

  • Journalists must have a strong foundation in social media and web content strategy as people turn to their digital devices to consume news and information.
  • Advertising and marketing on social media are created using traditional market research to identify a target audience and advanced digital technologies to engage and track the behaviors of those users.
  • Storytelling in gaming requires a writer to understand the function and gameplay of a particular interactive world as well as the creative writing skills to craft a captivating story.
  • Visual communication (infographics, interactive content, motion graphics) is used to present evidence in court cases, to sell products in stores, and to communicate instructions or directions. It must be dynamic, compelling, and effective.
  • Museums and cultural institutions are creating new and exciting ways to integrate digital technologies to educate the public, engage visitors, and enhance the guest experience.
  • Hotels, amusement parks, and resorts are turning to interactive apps that plan and manage guest experiences, wearables that unlock guest room doors and serve as your admission ticket, and a host of digital tools that enable online check-in, food ordering, and more.

RIT’s Humanities, Computing, and Design Program

This major is uniquely interdisciplinary. You’ll pair course work in three of RIT’s colleges–College of Liberal Arts, the Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences, and the College of Art and Design–to understand the historical and cultural contexts for, and to think critically about, how new technologies can impact traditional areas of the liberal arts. Our partnerships within RIT, with the Wallace Library, The Cary Graphic Arts Collection, and The RIT Press, as well as the Library Company of Philadelphia and Malmö University in Sweden, provide distinctive opportunities for imagination and application.

As a student in the major, you will learn to employ a range of tools and techniques, including 3D design visualization, geospatial technology, and electronic literature. The major also fosters critical analysis of digital culture, social media, and digital games. Team-based projects and public engagement are hallmarks of the program.

A Unique Pairing of Courses

The major combines information science and technologies with the liberal arts to provide you with the integrative literacy increasingly necessary for careers in cultural institutions, government, educational institutions, and technology firms. You’ll take courses in new media design, web and mobile design and development, database and data modeling, and computing. Professional electives enable you to gain knowledge in areas you can apply directly to your professional pursuits, such as multi-platform journalism, digital design in communication, gaming and literature, 2D animation and asset production, museums in the digital age, and more.

You’ll gain broad knowledge as well as expertise in a specialization area. A minor or immersion adds a secondary area of study. You’ll also benefit from experiential learning opportunities through cooperative education or internships, team-based projects, and lab courses. A capstone experience culminates in a project that is unique to your professional aspirations. This is a degree program where every student’s plan of study is tailored around their professional pursuits. You also will be encouraged to study abroad or pursue an international co-op in order to enhance your understanding of global cultures.

Combined Accelerated Bachelor's/Master's Degrees

Today’s careers require advanced degrees grounded in real-world experience. RIT’s Combined Accelerated Bachelor’s/Master’s Degrees enable you to earn both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in as little as five years of study, all while gaining the valuable hands-on experience that comes from co-ops, internships, research, study abroad, and more.

+1 MBA: Students who enroll in a qualifying undergraduate degree have the opportunity to add an MBA to their bachelor’s degree after their first year of study, depending on their program. Learn how the +1 MBA can accelerate your learning and position you for success.

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Careers and Cooperative Education

Typical Job Titles

Analyst/Programmer Exhibits Associate and Tour Guide
Strategy and Marketing Rep Web Designer

Industries

  • Advertising, PR, and Marketing

  • Internet and Software

  • Manufacturing

  • K-12 Education

Salary and Career Information for Humanities, Computing, and Design BS

Cooperative Education

What’s different about an RIT education? It’s the career experience you gain by completing cooperative education and internships with top companies in every single industry. You’ll earn more than a degree. You’ll gain real-world career experience that sets you apart. It’s exposure–early and often–to a variety of professional work environments, career paths, and industries.

Co-ops and internships take your knowledge and turn it into know-how. A liberal arts co-op provides hands-on experience that enables you to apply your knowledge in professional settings while you make valuable connections between course work and real-world applications.

Students in the humanities, computing, and design major are required to complete at least one cooperative education or internship experience.

Curriculum for 2023-2024 for Humanities, Computing, and Design BS

Current Students: See Curriculum Requirements

View Printable Curriculum

Humanities, Computing, and Design, BS degree, typical course sequence

Course Sem. Cr. Hrs.
First Year
DHSS-101
Computation and Culture
The course provides a basic introduction to the application of computation in the research and practice of the humanities, arts, and social sciences. The class offers students entry to work with archival theory and practice; textuality and electronic scholarly communication; data mining, analysis, and visualization; the spatial and temporal “turns;” game studies and digital arts. The course offers hands on experimentation with software platforms available to create scholarly and artistic production and theoretical approaches to digital presentation. Students will complete assignments requiring conceptual, aesthetic, and practical approaches to digital engagement with cultural materials. While no programming knowledge is required, students will design and create an online project using tools and platforms that are considered standard practice in the field, and reflect critically on the utility of digital techniques in their dialogue with the humanities. Lecture 3 (Fall).
 3
DHSS-102
Industrial Origins of the Digital Age
The central focus of this course will be the excavation of textual, visual, and sonic materials, obsolete or emerging. The archaeological metaphor evokes both the desire to recover material traces of the past and the imperative to situate those traces in their social, cultural, and political contexts. How does the digital age imagine backwards to the Industrial Age and vice versa? Is it true that virtually everything that is being invented now for a digital age had its origins in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century industrial age? (inventions of telegraphy and telephony, electricity, photography, cinema, the automobile, the Dewey Decimal and Library of Congress classification systems, muckraking and sensationalist journalism, celebrity culture, the skyscraper, the office, the typewriter, the Brownie camera). We will take a research approach that explores moments in which both familiar and unfamiliar devices have yet to emerge as significant or disappear as curiosities. Lecture 3 (Spring).
 3
GCIS-123
Software Development and Problem Solving I
A first course introducing students to the fundamentals of computational problem solving. Students will learn a systematic approach to problem solving, including how to frame a problem in computational terms, how to decompose larger problems into smaller components, how to implement innovative software solutions using a contemporary programming language, how to critically debug their solutions, and how to assess the adequacy of the software solution. Additional topics include an introduction to object-oriented programming and data structures such as arrays and stacks. Students will complete both in-class and out-of-class assignments. Lab 6 (Fall, Spring).
 4
ISTE-140
Web & Mobile I
This course provides students with an introduction to internet and web technologies, and to development on Macintosh/UNIX computer platforms. Topics include HTML and CSS, CSS3 features, digital images, web page design and website publishing. Emphasis is placed on fundamentals, concepts and standards. Additional topics include the user experience, mobile design issues, and copyright/intellectual property considerations. Exercises and projects are required. Lec/Lab 3 (Fall, Spring).
 3
YOPS-10
RIT 365: RIT Connections
RIT 365 students participate in experiential learning opportunities designed to launch them into their career at RIT, support them in making multiple and varied connections across the university, and immerse them in processes of competency development. Students will plan for and reflect on their first-year experiences, receive feedback, and develop a personal plan for future action in order to develop foundational self-awareness and recognize broad-based professional competencies. (This class is restricted to incoming 1st year or global campus students.) Lecture 1 (Fall, Spring).
 0
 
General Education – Artistic Perspective
 3
 
General Education – Ethical Perspective
 3
 
General Education – First-Year Writing (WI)
 3
 
General Education – Global Perspective
 3
 
General Education – Social Perspective
 3
 
General Education – Elective
 3
Second Year
DHSS-103
Ethics in the Digital Era
The course will examine various contemporary and global issues of digital citizenship and new ethical challenges raised by digital technology. The course will raise questions regarding how digital technology has changed citizenship practices: Who has access to full citizenship, and why? What responsibilities are entailed in digital citizenship? Themes may include the nature and value of digital technology; the relations between digital technologies and knowledge-making/meaning-making; the value of information privacy; the role of digital media in society and human interactions; issues arising from the life-cycle of new digital tools and data repositories; and questions broadly related to questions of accessibility, representation, and sustainability as applied to digital technologies. Topics may also include research ethics, piracy and file sharing, hacktivism, copyright and fair use, end-user license agreements, alternative news media, and participatory culture. Students will take up both broad ethical issues and specific professional codes and policy in diverse domains. Lecture 3 (Spring).
 3
ISTE-230
Introduction to Database and Data Modeling
A presentation of the fundamental concepts and theories used in organizing and structuring data. Coverage includes the data modeling process, basic relational model, normalization theory, relational algebra, and mapping a data model into a database schema. Structured Query Language is used to illustrate the translation of a data model to physical data organization. Modeling and programming assignments will be required. Note: students should have one course in object-oriented programming. (Prerequisites: ISTE-120 or ISTE-200 or IGME-101 or IGME-105 or CSCI-140 or CSCI-142 or NACA-161 or NMAD-180 or BIOL-135 or GCIS-123 or equivalent course.) Lec/Lab 3 (Fall, Spring).
 3
ISTE-240
Web & Mobile II
This course builds on the basics of web page development that are presented in Web and Mobile I and extends that knowledge to focus on theories, issues, and technologies related to the design and development of web sites. An overview of web design concepts, including usability, accessibility, information architecture, and graphic design in the context of the web will be covered. Introduction to web site technologies, including HTTP, web client and server programming, and dynamic page generation from a database also will be explored. Development exercises are required. (Prerequisites: (ISTE-120 or CSCI-140 or CSCI-141 or NACA-161 or IGME-105 or IGME-101 or NMAD-180 or GCIS-123) and (ISTE-140 or NACA-172 or IGME-230 or IGME-235) or equivalent course.) Lec/Lab 3 (Fall, Spring).
 3
NMDE-111
New Media Design Digital Survey I
This project-based course is an investigation of the computer as an illustrative, imaging, and graphical generation tool. It develops foundational design skills in raster and vector image creation, editing, compositing, layout and visual design for online production. Emphasis will be on the application of visual design organization methods and principles for electronic media. Students will create and edit images, graphics, layouts and typography to form effective design solutions for online delivery. (This course is restricted to students in the WMC-BS or HCC-BS or NMDE-BFA or NWMEDID-BS or DIGHSS-BS program.) Lab 3, Lecture 2 (Fall, Spring).
 3
NMDE-112
New Media Design Digital Survey II
Through formal studies and perceptual understanding, including aesthetics, graphic form, structure, concept development, visual organization methods and interaction principles, students will design graphical solutions to communication problems for static and interactive projects. Students will focus on creating appropriate and usable design systems through the successful application of design theory and best practices. Assignments exploring aspects of graphic imagery, typography, usability and production for multiple digital devices and formats will be included. (Prerequisite: NMDE-111 or NMAD-155 or equivalent course.) Lab 3, Lecture 2 (Fall, Spring).
 3
STAT-145
Introduction to Statistics I (General Education – Mathematical Perspective A)
This course introduces statistical methods of extracting meaning from data, and basic inferential statistics. Topics covered include data and data integrity, exploratory data analysis, data visualization, numeric summary measures, the normal distribution, sampling distributions, confidence intervals, and hypothesis testing. The emphasis of the course is on statistical thinking rather than computation. Statistical software is used. (Prerequisites: Any 100 level MATH course, or NMTH-260 or NMTH-272 or NMTH-275 or (NMTH-250 with a C- or better) or a Math Placement Exam score of at least 35.) Lecture 3 (Fall, Spring, Summer).
 3
 
General Education – Immersion 1, 2
 6
 
General Education – Mathematical Perspective B
 3
 
General Education – Natural Science Inquiry Perspective
 4
Third Year
DHSS-377
Media Narrative (WI-PR)
The contemporary understanding of communication and narrative is quickly shifting in a world where media is ubiquitous. The "language of new media" is the thematic used in this course to discuss contemporary and historic forms of non-linear narrative. Students will explore the properties of non-linear, multi-linear, and interactive forms of narratives. This course will survey some of the possibilities, examining both traditional and new media such as oral storytelling, literature, poetry, visual arts, museum exhibits, architecture, hypertext fiction, Net Art, and computer games. Writers on communication culture, gaming, television, digital aesthetics, contemporary art and film, as well as synchronic narrative will be addressed. The focus is to develop critical tools to analyze contemporary media as well as a minimal level of practical implementation. Students will produce a final media project. Lecture 3 (Spring).
 3
DHSS-499
DHSS Co-Op (summer)
A semester or summer-length experience in a professional setting related to the digital humanities and social sciences major, with a minimum of 350 hours. (Prerequisites: This class is restricted to DIGHSS-BS Major students with at least 2nd year standing.2nd Year and DIGHSS-BS) CO OP (Fall, Spring, Summer).
 0
IGME-382
Maps, Mapping and Geospatial Technologies
This course provides a survey of underlying concepts and technologies used to represent and understand the earth, a form of new media collectively referred to as Geospatial Technologies (GTs). Students will gain hands-on experience with GTs, including Global Positioning Systems (GPSs), Geographic Information Systems (GISs), remote sensing, Virtual Globes, and geographically-oriented new media such as mapping mashups. Students also will develop basic spatial thinking, reasoning, problem solving, and literacy skills. Lec/Lab 3 (Fall).
 3
 
General Education – Immersion 3
 3
 
General Education – Scientific Principles Perspective
 3
 
General Education – Electives
 6
 
Professional Electives
 6
 
Project Courses
 6
Fourth Year
DHSS-489
DHSS Capstone I
This course is intended for students in the DHSS program to produce critical and creative projects that apply digital technologies to a field of inquiry in the humanities and/or social sciences, while being guided by faculty advisors. Students will acquire a client (faculty member, not-for-profit organization, or cultural heritage site) and will be supervised by the advisor as they develop the research agenda, develop the project management plan, construct all necessary IRB materials, intellectual property documents, and copyright permissions, and develop a working prototype. This course will culminate in an online publishable project and a written rationale with theoretical grounding, as well as explanation of practical decisions and applications. It is expected that the project will be somewhat novel, will extend the theoretical understanding of previous work, and go well beyond any similar projects that they might have contributed to in any of their previous courses. The 6-hour course sequence is designed to be distributed over two consecutive semesters in order to allow for long-term, in-depth development of projects. Research 3 (Fall).
 3
DHSS-490
DHSS Capstone II
This course is intended for students in the DHSS program to produce critical and creative projects that apply digital technologies to a field of inquiry in the humanities and/or social sciences, while being guided by faculty advisors. Students will acquire a client (faculty member, not-for-profit organization, or cultural heritage site) and will be supervised by the advisor as they develop the research agenda, develop the project management plan, construct all necessary IRB materials, intellectual property documents, and copyright permissions, and develop a working prototype. This course will culminate in an online publishable project and a written rationale with theoretical grounding, as well as explanation of practical decisions and applications. It is expected that the project will be somewhat novel, will extend the theoretical understanding of previous work, and go well beyond any similar projects that they might have contributed to in any of their previous courses. The 6-hour course sequence is designed to be distributed over two consecutive semesters in order to allow for long-term, in-depth development of projects. Research 3 (Spring).
 3
 
General Education – Electives
 9
 
Open Electives
 12
 
Professional Elective
 3
Total Semester Credit Hours
122

Please see General Education Curriculum (GE) for more information.

(WI-PR) Refers to a writing intensive course within the major.

* Please see Wellness Education Requirement for more information. Students completing bachelor's degrees are required to complete two different Wellness courses.

Professional Electives

COMM-223
Digital Design in Communication
In an increasingly visual culture, and culture of online user-created content, non-designers are called upon in the professional realm to illustrate their ideas. Graduates entering the workforce will encounter situations where they will benefit from possessing a visual communication sensibility and vocabulary to communicate effectively with a broad range of audiences, including professional designers. Creative approaches to challenges, such as visual thinking, are also shown to improve students’ comprehension and problem-solving abilities. Digital Design in Communication is an opportunity for undergraduates to receive an introduction to principles of visual message design from a critical rhetorical perspective. They will also get the opportunity to apply these principles to a variety of visual products such as advertisements, logos, brochures, resumes, etc. A variety of computer software applications are available to support the research, writing, visualization, and design of messages. Lecture 3 (Fall, Summermr).
COMM-263
Data Journalism
This course covers how to report on, illustrate, find, and analyze records and databases, with emphasis on investigative reporting. Lecture 3 (Spring).
COMM-343
Technology-Mediated Communication
Technology-mediated communication (TMC) was originally defined as a form of electronic written communication. As networking tools advanced, TMC expanded to include new software developments, such as instant messenger and the web. Today, the term technology-mediated communication is used to refer to a wide range of technologies that facilitate both human communication and the interactive sharing of information through computer networks. Through readings, discussions, and observations of online behavior, students will be introduced to TMC terms and theories to further develop their TMC communication and critical thinking skills. Lecture 3 (Spring).
COMM-356
Critical Practice in Social Media
With the advent of virtual communities, smart mobs, and online social networks, questions about the meaning of human communication and how we construct our online and offline personal and professional identities need to be reevaluated. This course explores the relationship between social media and the construction of both individual and social identities as well as best practices for constructing the desired community or identity. Although the course is grounded in theory, it is equally committed to practice, and much of the class discussion and activity takes place in various online spaces. As a practicum, those who complete this course will know how to engage productively in practices such as tweeting, blogging, tagging, etc. and will develop an understanding of how these practices affect their construction of identity and community both personally and on behalf of an organization. Lecture 3 (Fall, Spring).
COMM-357
Communication, Gender, and Media
This course examines the relationship between gender and media communication with specific attention to how gender affects choices in mass media and social media practices. Students explore how gender, sexual orientation, sexuality and social roles, affect media coverage, portrayals, production and reception. They consider issues of authorship, spectatorship (audience), and the ways in which various media content (film, television, print journalism, advertising, social media) enables, facilitates, and challenges these social constructions in society. The course covers communication theories and scholarship as it applies to gender and media, methods of media analysis, and topics of current interest. Lecture 3 (Fall).
COMM-461
Multiplatform Journalism
CRIM-290
Computer Crime
This course provides definitional, theoretical, and operational context for understanding computer-based competition, conflict and crime in the information age. Students study the history, nature and extent of computer-related crime, as well as differing types of computer criminals, their motivations and the methods they use to threaten, attack, compromise or damage physical, and cyber assets. The course considers legal and regulatory environments and the impact these have on policies and practices related to ethics in the management of information security, data encryption, privacy, and numerous other special topics. (Prerequisites: CRIM-110 or equivalent course.) Lecture 3 (Fall, Spring).
DHSS-488
Special Topics
A critical examination/practicum in an area of digital humanities not covered in other digital humanities and social sciences courses. Counts as a program elective for the DHSS degree program, and may be taken as a general education elective if approved by the general education committee. Lecture 3 (Biannual).
ENGL-215
Text & Code
We encounter digital texts and codes every time we use a smart phone, turn on an app, read an e-book, or interact online. This course examines the innovative combinations of text and code that underpin emerging textual practices such as electronic literatures, digital games, mobile communication, geospatial mapping, interactive and locative media, augmented reality, and interactive museum design. Drawing on key concepts of text and code in related fields, students will analyze shifting expressive textual practices and develop the literacies necessary to read and understand them. Practicing and reflecting on such new media literacies, the course explores their social, cultural, creative, technological, and legal significance. To encourage multiple perspectives on these pivotal concepts of text and code and their import, the course includes guest lectures by scholars and practitioners in these fields. Lecture 3 (Fall).
ENGL-315
Digital Literature
Since the initial development of the computer, writers have collaborated with programmers, illustrators, and soundscapists to create digital literatures. Following from radical techniques in print literatures such as concrete poetry, Choose Your Own Adventure novels, and reorderable/unbound fictions, digital literatures exploit the potential of digital formats to explore questions of interactivity, readership, authorship, embodiment, and power. In this class, we will learn to analyze and appreciate digital literatures not simply through their content, but also through the relation of content to form, media, programming platforms, and distribution formats. Our consideration of digital literatures will lead us to cell phones, web pages, video games, virtual reality environments, and genome sequencers. Lecture 3 (Fall).
ENGL-373
Media Adaptation
This course introduces students to the field of adaptation studies and explores the changes that occur as particular texts such as print, radio, theatre, television, film, and videogames move between various cultural forms and amongst different cultural contexts. The course focuses upon works that have been disseminated in more than one medium. Lecture 3 (Fall).
ENGL-374
Games and Literature
Who studies game studies? Writing in games can often be hit or miss, so relying on an established story can provide support and allows the medium to evolve to cover more interesting stories than the typical mass-offering affairs. Still, literature and games are fundamentally different media- and as such these differences must be accounted for when mapping literature onto video games. Will game studies ever be as highly regarded as is critical scholarship on, say, literature? Can a video game possess substantial literary merit? Can a video game offer the same depth of characters and insight into the human condition as a novel? Do video games invite the player to do the same things that works of great literature invite the reader to do: identify with the characters, invite him to judge them and quarrel with them, and to experience their joys and sufferings as the reader’s own? In this course we will have these conversations and then go beyond. We will examine works that have visually evocative and varied settings; narratives that make readers wonder what is going to happen next; and a rapidly changing culture that prompts even more questions than it answers. Lecture 3 (Fall).
ENGL-375
Storytelling Across Media
This course introduces the basic elements of narrative, reflecting on key concepts in narrative theory such as – story and plot, narration and focalization, characterization, storyspace, and worldmaking – to enhance your understanding of how stories work and your ability to understand how such storytelling strategies convey their meaning and themes. After an initial exploration of storytelling traditions emerging from oral myth and short stories in print, we expand our inquiries into what a narrative is and what it can do by considering what happens to storytelling in graphic novels, digital games, and in recent electronic literature. Reflecting on competing definitions and varieties of narrative, the course raises the overarching question of why how we access, read, write, and circulate stories as a culture matters. Expect to read stories in a variety of media, to review basic concepts and conversations drawn from narrative theory, and to creatively experiment with the storytelling strategies we are analyzing in class. No familiarity with specific print, digital, or visual media necessary, though a willingness to read and reflect on stories in various media and to analyze their cultural significance will be essential. Lecture 3 (Spring).
ENGL-386
World Building Workshop
This course focuses on the collaboration construction of fictional worlds. Students will learn to think critically about features of fictional worlds, such as the social, political, and economic structures that influence daily life for the characters who inhabit that world. Students will also participate in extensive character development exercises, and then write short fiction from these characters’ perspectives describing the challenges they face in these worlds. Students will critique each other’s fiction and submit revised work. Each class will include considerations of sophisticated fictional worlds in print and in other media and discuss world building features relevant to teach. (Prerequisites: ENGL-211 or completion of First Year Writing (FYW) requirement or equivalent course.) Lecture 3 (Fall).
ENGL-389
Digital Creative Writing Workshop
Digital creative writing involves much more than simply writing in digital formats - it can include computer-generated poetry, bots, hypertext fiction, Augmented Reality, or locative narrative. This course is for students who want to explore digital creative writing in all its forms. Through reading, discussion, and exercises, students will produce born digital writings in different applications. Students will learn style and craft techniques for digital environments while also exploring the relationship between content and digital applications. Peer critiques will help students rethink their work and become better editors. Programming knowledge is helpful but not required. This course can be taken up to two times for a total of six semester credit hours as long as the instructors are different. (Prerequisites: ENGL-211 or completion of First Year Writing (FYW) requirement or equivalent course.) Lecture 3 (Spring).
ENGL-450
Free & Open Source Culture
This course charts the development of the free culture movement by examining the changing relationship between authorship and cultural production based on a variety of factors: law, culture, commerce and technology. In particular, we will examine the rise of the concept of the individual author during the last three centuries. Using a variety of historical and theoretical readings, we will note how law and commerce have come to shape the prevailing cultural norms surrounding authorship, while also examining lesser known models of collaborative and distributed authoring practices. This background will inform our study of the rapid social transformations wrought by media technologies in last two centuries, culminating with the challenges and opportunities brought forth by digital media, mobile communications and networked computing. Students will learn about the role of software in highlighting changing authorship practices, facilitating new business and economic models and providing a foundation for conceiving of open source, open access, participatory, peer-to-peer and Free (as in speech, not beer) cultures. (Prerequisites: Completion of First Year Writing (FYW) requirement is required prior to enrolling in this class.) Lecture 3 (Spring).
ENGL-543
Game-Based Fiction Workshop
This course is for students who have completed a creative writing workshop and want to explore how games and rules can be used to produce unique and unpredictable narratives. Projects will include individual writing exercises, collaborative writing practice, and critiques of peer writing. Students will examine how different game mechanics produce different kinds of narratives and may be encouraged to develop their own game-based writing projects. Through the reading and discussion of other narrative media, students will learn the affordances and limitations of game-based storytelling systems. (Prerequisites: ENGL-386 or ENGL-389 or ENGL-390 or equivalent courses.) Lecture 3 (Spring).
FNRT-215
Video Game Criticism
This course will focus on the analysis of video games. Students will play and review classic games from the past as well as important newer games from different genres. Students will explore and discuss the formal and dramatic aspects of video games as works of art: imagery, technique, moral and ethical messages, social commentary, and historical significance. Lecture 3 (Annual).
HIST-324
Oral History
Oral history collects memories and personal commentaries of historical significance through recorded interviews. There are few opportunities for historical research that are more satisfying or more challenging than oral history. In this class, we will learn about oral history methods, techniques, and ethics. We will read, listen to, and watch some of the finest examples of the genre. Then we will go out and add to the world's understanding of its past by conducting oral histories of our own. For their final project in this course, students will work in teams to produce a podcast based on their own interview(s). Lecture 3 (Fall).
HIST-326
Digital History
Computers and their networks have fundamentally altered the ways that history is both produced and consumed. Sources in digital formats simultaneously present opportunities and challenges that force us to rethink what is possible in history. Doing history in a digital age forces us to engage with the issues and opportunities raised by such as topics as digitization and preservation, text mining, interactive maps, new historic methodologies and narrative forms, computational programming, and digital storytelling. Digital tools, including blogs, wikis, video sharing sites, and many others, help bring history to new audiences in different ways. In this course, we will investigate the landscape of digital history and tackle the exciting task of understanding and creating history in the digital age. Lecture 3 (Spring).
HIST-480
Global Information Age
The internet and cell phones seem to have turned us into world citizens of cyberspace. Programmers in Bangalore or Chennai now write software for U.S. companies, and doctors in India or Australia interpret the Cat-Scan or MRI images of US patients overnight. As bestselling author Thomas Friedman argues, the world is flat, that is competition for intellectual work is now global. Others have suggested that information technologies have led to global homogenization, with people around the world reading the same news, listening to the same music, and purchasing the same products. In this class, we will investigate the history of information and communication technologies to cast new light on these claims about our present-day technologies. This class is a small seminar which includes a research project. Lecture 3 (Spring).
IGME-101
New Media Interactive Design Algorithmic Problem Solving I
This course provides students with an introduction to problem solving, abstraction, and algorithmic thinking that is relevant across the field of new media. Students are introduced to object-oriented design methodologies through the creation of event-driven, media-intensive applications. Students will explore the development of software through the use of a range of algorithmic concepts related to the creation of applications by writing classes that employ the fundamental structures of computing, such as conditionals, loops, variables, data types, functions, and parameters. There is an early emphasis on object oriented concepts and design. (This course is restricted to students in NWMEDID-BS or NMDE-BFA with at least 2nd year standing or GAMED-MN students.) Lec/Lab 6 (Fall, Spring).
IGME-102
New Media Interactive Design Algorithmic Problem Solving II
This course provides students a continued introduction to problem solving, abstraction, and algorithmic thinking that is relevant across the field of new media. As the second course in programming for new media students, this course continues an object-oriented approach to programming for creative practice. Topics will include re-usability, data structures, rich media types, event-driven programming, loaders, XML, object design, and inheritance. Emphasis is placed on the development of problem-solving skills as students develop moderately complex applications. (Prerequisites: C- or better in IGME-101 or equivalent course and students in NWMEDID-BS or NMDE-BFA with at least 2nd year standing or GAMED-MN students.) Lec/Lab 6 (Fall, Spring).
IGME-119
2D Animation and Asset Production
This course provides a theoretical framework covering the principles of animation and its use in game design to affect user experience. Emphasis will be placed upon principles that support character development and animations that show cause and effect. Students will apply these principles to create animations that reflect movement and character appropriate for different uses and environments. (This course is restricted to students in GAMEDES-BS or NWMEDID-BS or GAMED-MN students.) Lec/Lab 3 (Fall, Spring).
IGME-220
Game Design & Development I
This course examines the core process of game design, from ideation and structured brainstorming in an entertainment technology context through the examination of industry standard processes and techniques for documenting and managing the design process. This course specifically examines techniques for assessing and quantifying the validity of a given design, for managing innovation and creativity in a game development-specific context, and for world and character design. Specific emphasis is placed on both the examination and deconstruction of historical successes and failures, along with presentation of ethical and cultural issues related to the design and development of interactive software and the role of individuals in a team-oriented design methodology. Students in this class are expected to actively participate and engage in the culture of design and critique as it relates to the field. (This course is restricted to students in GAMEDES-BS or NWMEDID-BS or GAMED-MN or GAMEDD-MN YR 2-5 students.) Lec/Lab 3 (Fall, Spring).
IGME-320
Game Design & Development II
This course continues to examine the core theories of game design as they relate to the professional field. Beginning with a formalized pitch process, this course examines the design and development paradigm from story-boarding and pre-visualization through rapid iteration, refinement, and structured prototyping exercises to further examine the validity of a given design. Specific emphasis is placed on iterative prototyping models, and on methodologies for both informal and formal critique. This course also explores production techniques and life-cycle in the professional industry. (Prerequisites: (IGME-202 and IGME-220 or equivalent courses and GAMEDES-BS or NWMEDID-BS or GAMEDD-MN students) or (IGME-102 and IGME-220 or equivalent courses and GAMED-MN students).) Lec/Lab 3 (Fall, Spring).
IGME-384
Introduction to Geographic Information Systems
This course introduces students to Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for understanding and representing people, places and culture through new media. Through applied research projects, students will learn how GIS is a support mechanism for spatially-oriented thinking, reasoning, literacy, and problem-solving at the global scale. Such global problems include international disaster management, digital humanities, climate change, and sustainable development. Course lectures, writing and reading assignments, and in-class activities cover a mix of conceptual, practical and technical GIS topics. Topics include interactions among people, places and cultures around the world, GIS data models, basic cartography, geodatabases, spatial data acquisition and creation, and spatial analysis. This general education course also examines GIS ethical issues such as privacy, information ownership, accuracy, and mapping and social power. Lec/Lab 3 (Spring).
LING-351
Language Technology
We will explore the relationship between language and technology from the invention of writing systems to current natural language and speech technologies. Topics include script decipherment, machine translation, automatic speech recognition and generation, dialog systems, computational natural language understanding and inference, as well as language technologies that support users with language disabilities. We will also trace how science and technology are shaping language, discuss relevant artificial intelligence concepts, and examine the ethical implications of advances in language processing by computers. Students will have the opportunity to experience text analysis with relevant tools. This is an interdisciplinary course and technical background is not required. Lecture 4 (Spring).
LING-581
Intro to Natural Language Processing
This course provides theoretical foundation as well as hands-on (lab-style) practice in computational approaches for processing natural language text. The course will have relevance to various disciplines in the humanities, sciences, computational, and technical fields. We will discuss problems that involve different components of the language system (such as meaning in context and linguistic structures). Students will additionally collaborate in teams on modeling and implementing natural language processing and digital text solutions. Students will program in Python and use a variety of relevant tools. Expected: Programming skills, demonstrated via coursework or instruction approval. Lecture 3 (Spring).
MUSE-225
Museums & the Digital Age
The digital revolution has profoundly influenced how we think about the world around us. Information once available only to experts is now accessible digitally to a much broader audience. Museums, archives, and libraries have adapted to this democratization of knowledge and decentralization of access in myriad ways. As visitors to museums—whether online or onsite—each of us is part of the creation, consumption, and reception of digital information. What does this mean for museums and for us as audiences and consumers of such information? How has the combination of digital technology and social media increased visitors’ abilities for interaction with cultural institutions, their collections, and other visitors? This course will examine the history and evolution of museum practices as they adapt to new technologies and rethink traditional museum practices. The course has no pre-requisite and is open to students of all majors. Lecture 3 (Fall).
MUSE-359
Digital and Critical Curation 
This course introduces students to Cultural Informatics, the interdisciplinary field that examines the intersections of information technologies, information science, and cultural information centered in museums, libraries, and archives. Among the topics to be examined are: how information technologies are used in museums, libraries, and archives; how modern information systems have shaped the museum environment; the nature of convergence; the development of digital collections, digital curation, and online exhibitions; and the role and status of the information professional in the museum and cultural organizations. The course is designed around projects, case studies, and readings so that students gain hands-on experience working with information. The course has no prerequisite and is open to students of all majors. Lecture 3 (Fall).
MUSE-360
Visitor Engagement & Museum Technologies
All of us, as museum visitors, have the capacity to engage with collections and to create meanings as a result of such interaction. This course considers the history and theory of visitor engagement at museums, galleries, and sites of cultural heritage tourism; examines the import of technology into this history; and articulates the role of visitors as participants who curate their own experiences. Two key questions will be addressed in this course: 1) How does technology provide a platform for contribution, collaboration, co-creation, and co-opting of experiences among all visitors? and 2) Can technology mediate the best possible experience for visitors? The course has no prerequisite and is open to students of all majors. Lecture 3 (Spring).
PHIL-307
Philosophy of Technology
Technology is a ubiquitous and defining force in our world. This course investigates how our conceptions of technology have emerged within philosophy, as well as the role technology plays in shaping how we live and how we reflect upon questions of meaning and value in life. Technological modes of understanding, organizing and transforming the world shape our relationships with others, with ourselves and with nature at fundamental levels. We will explore how these modes have emerged and why they emerged so predominantly within a Western social and intellectual context. Lecture 3 (Fall).
PHIL-314
Philosophy of Vision and Imaging
This course examines how philosophers and others have understood the nature and primacy of sight. It explores how technologies of seeing and imaging have influenced theories of sight and our most dominant and authoritative practices of seeing and representing in the humanities and the arts, as well as in the natural and social sciences. The course will focus on the impact these theories and practices of seeing and representing both analogue and digital have on the nature of knowing, as well as on how they shape and mediate our experiences of personal and social identity and agency more generally. Lecture 3 (Fall).
STSO-441
Cyborg Theory: (Re)thinking the Human Experience in the 21st Century
The developing cybernetic organism or cyborg challenges traditional concepts of what it means to be human. Today medical science and science fiction appear to merge in ways unimagined a century ago. By exploring scientific and cultural theories, science fiction, and public experience, this class examines the history and potential of the cyborg in Western cultures. Lecture 3 (Spring).
VISL-383
Traumatic Images
This course investigates visual culture and its imagistic response to life's crises. Problems of identity and identification will be explored and confronted through works of photography, painting, mixed media, new media and film of the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries. Beginning with the late 19th Century vogue for images of hysterical women, crippled black-sheep family members and dead loved ones (as corpses and as ghosts), we then move on to consider the last century's fascination with pain and suffering, disease and violence, struggle and survival and then the 21st century's emphasis on terrorism. Specifically, we will focus on the gendering of images and imaging as disturbing pictures work to defy the formal and theoretical distinction between private and public, personal, and collective experience and manage the often conflicting responsibilities to self, family, religion, race, nation, and society. Lecture 3 (Spring).

Project Courses

ENGL-422
Maps, Spaces, and Places
This course takes as its premise that spatial thinking is critically important. Spatial thinking informs our ability to understand many areas of 21st century culture, as mobile interfaces and geospatial technologies enable us to engage with our surroundings in new ways. The study begins with the history maps and mapmaking, and explores how maps work. As students create representational, iconographic, satirical, image-based, informational, and other map forms, the course emphasizes the map as narrative. The course develops into an exploration of the ways, particularly in texts, that mapmaking creates cultural routes, mobile forms of ethnography, and ways of imagining travel and tourism in the era of globalization. The diverse writers represented in this course are rethinking space as a dynamic context for the making of history and for different organizations of social and communal life. (Prerequisites: Completion of First Year Writing (FYW) requirement is required prior to enrolling in this class.) Lecture 3 (Fall).
ENGL-543
Game-Based Fiction Workshop
This course is for students who have completed a creative writing workshop and want to explore how games and rules can be used to produce unique and unpredictable narratives. Projects will include individual writing exercises, collaborative writing practice, and critiques of peer writing. Students will examine how different game mechanics produce different kinds of narratives and may be encouraged to develop their own game-based writing projects. Through the reading and discussion of other narrative media, students will learn the affordances and limitations of game-based storytelling systems. (Prerequisites: ENGL-386 or ENGL-389 or ENGL-390 or equivalent courses.) Lecture 3 (Spring).
FNRT-329
Virtual Worlds
This course examines visual storytelling as an art form in video games. The study of visual storytelling in historic and contemporary art raises questions of social, cultural and political contexts as well as their impact on player experience. Through reading and analysis of art and video games, students will be exposed to different design techniques that visually express social concepts through mechanics, content and aesthetics. The course offers hands on experience with game engine software to create artistic game prototypes that incorporate theoretical approaches to cultural context. Topics may include the relationship of cultural context and environmental storytelling, the critical interpretation and application of visual techniques in fine art, the critical analysis of cultural and artistic themes in video games, creating meaningful worlds through visual and aural design, identity and representation in character design, and the impact of cultural context on the design of interactive and emergent narratives Students will use these concepts to create innovative game prototypes as meaningful cultural and artistic experiences. Lecture 3 (Spring).
IGME-580
IGM Production Studio
This course will allow students to work as domain specialists on teams completing one or more large projects over the course of the semester. The projects will be relevant to experiences of the interactive games and media programs, but will require expertise in a variety of sub-domains, including web design and development, social computing, computer game development, multi-user media, human-computer interaction and streaming media. Students will learn to apply concepts of project management and scheduling, production roles and responsibilities, and their domain skill sets to multidisciplinary projects. Students will complete design documents, progress reports and final assessments of themselves and their teammates in addition to completing their assigned responsibilities on the main projects. (Prerequisites: IGME-330 or equivalent course and restricted to students in NWMEDID-BS or IGME-320 or equivalent course and restricted to students in GAMEDES-BS.) Lec/Lab 3 (Fall, Spring, Summer).
IGME-581
Innovation & Invention
IGME-589
Research Studio
This course will allow students to work as domain specialists on teams completing one or more faculty research projects over the course of the semester. The faculty member teaching the class will provide the research topic(s). Students will learn about research methodology to implement, test, and evaluate results of projects. Students will complete research reports and final assessments of themselves and their teammates in addition to completing their assigned responsibilities on the main projects. (This course is restricted to students in NWMEDID-BS or GAMEDES-BS with 3rd year standing.) Lec/Lab 3 (Fall, Spring, Summer).
MUSE-354
Exhibition Design
This course examines the history and practice of exhibition design. It reviews the history of exhibitions within the development of museum-like institutions. In this course the following aspects of exhibition design are considered: curatorial premise or theme, exhibition development timeline, exhibition site, contracts and contractual obligations, budgets and fundraising, publicity material, didactic material, and exhibition design. The course includes field trips to local institutions and collections throughout the term. Lecture 3 (Fall).
NMDE-201
New Media Design Elements II
Information design for static, dynamic and interactive multimedia integrates content with visual indicators. Legibility and clear communication of information and direction is important to the success of any user interface design. This course integrates imagery, type, icons, actions, color, visual hierarchy, and information architecture as a foundation to design successful interactive experiences. (Prerequisites: NMDE-102 or NMDE-112 or equivalent course and student standing in NMDE-BFA or HCC-BS or DIGHSS-BS program.) Lab 3, Lecture 2 (Fall).
NMDE-203
New Media Design Interactive II
This course extends previous interactive design and development experience and skills to emphasize interactive design principles and development. The emphasis in this course will be on the creative process of planning and implementing an interactive project across multiple platforms. Students will concentrate on information architecture, interactive design, conceptual creation, digital assets, visual design and programming for interactions. (Prerequisites: NMDE-103 or ISTE-140 and NMDE-112 and NMDE-201 or equivalent courses.) Lab 3, Lecture 2 (Spring).
NMDE-302
New Media Design Graphical User Interface
This course examines the user-centered and iterative design approaches to application and interactive development with a focus on interface design, testing and development across multiple devices. Students will research and investigate human factors, visual metaphors and prototype development to create effective and cutting edge user interfaces. (Prerequisites: NMDE-201 and NMDE-203 or equivalent courses.) Lab 3, Lecture 2 (Fall).
VISL-377
Imag(in)ing Rochester 
This course examines the ways in which culture, ethnicity, languages, traditions, governance, policies and histories interact in the production of the visual experience. We will approach the campus of RIT and the city of Rochester and their various urban spatial forms as image experiences, subject to interpretative strategies and the influence of other discourses. We will wander the well-traveled and the unbeaten paths, participating in and interrogating a wide range of our campus' and city's treasures and embarrassments, secrets and norms. In addition to these field trips, we will be reading from literature and cultural studies, as well as viewing films, advertisements and websites, and possibly attending theatrical and music performances or sporting events. Lecture 3 (Fall).
VISL-383
Traumatic Images
This course investigates visual culture and its imagistic response to life's crises. Problems of identity and identification will be explored and confronted through works of photography, painting, mixed media, new media and film of the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries. Beginning with the late 19th Century vogue for images of hysterical women, crippled black-sheep family members and dead loved ones (as corpses and as ghosts), we then move on to consider the last century's fascination with pain and suffering, disease and violence, struggle and survival and then the 21st century's emphasis on terrorism. Specifically, we will focus on the gendering of images and imaging as disturbing pictures work to defy the formal and theoretical distinction between private and public, personal, and collective experience and manage the often conflicting responsibilities to self, family, religion, race, nation, and society. Lecture 3 (Spring).
VISL-384
Art of Dying
This course explores the experience of dying a profoundly human and universal experience as it is represented by artists who are themselves facing immanent death. The unique and deeply personal process of each dying artist is crucially informed by social, cultural and historical as well as artistic contexts. The course will focus primarily on visual artists and writers living with and dying of disease - such as AIDS, cancer and cystic fibrosis as well as mortality and age. Topics such as aesthetics, artistic media, representation, grief, bereavement, illness, care-giving, aging, and the dying process will be considered within the context of issues of race, class, ethnicity, sexuality, gender and community values. Some of the artists covered will be Jo Spence, Hannah Wilke, Elias Canetti, Bob Flanagan, Herve Guibert, Tom Joslin, Laurie Lynd, Audre Lorde, Charlotte Salomon, Keith Haring, Frida Kahlo, Bas Jan Ader, Ted Rosenthal, Felix Gonzalez Torres, Keith Haring, Eric Steel, Derek Jarman, Eric Michaels, and David Wojnarowicz. We will also explore some of the critical theory of Roland Barthes, Michel Foucault, Elaine Scarry, Susan Sontag, and Ross Chambers. Lecture 3 (Spring).

Admissions and Financial Aid

First-Year Admission

A strong performance in a college preparatory program is expected. This includes:

  • 4 years of English with a strong performance is expected.
  • 3 years of social studies and/or history with a strong performance is expected.
  • 3 years of math is required and must include algebra, geometry, and algebra 2/trigonometry. 
  • 2-3 years of science.

Transfer Admission

Transfer course recommendations without associate degree
Liberal arts courses and basic information technology or computer science course work

Appropriate associate degree programs for transfer
Liberal arts with web development courses, and some information technology or computer science course work

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Financial Aid and Scholarships

100% of all incoming first-year and transfer students receive aid.

RIT’s personalized and comprehensive financial aid program includes scholarships, grants, loans, and campus employment programs. When all these are put to work, your actual cost may be much lower than the published estimated cost of attendance.
Learn more about financial aid and scholarships

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